Kiva: Micro-lending

For those who have no idea what micro lending is, the main concept is that in developing (third world) nations, the people who need loans the most, are unable to get them because they do not have the credit/collateral and banks just don’t give loans for less than $1,000. Sometimes as little as $100 will make all the difference in the lives of an entire family – from generation to generation – simply because they got that small initial financial assistance that enabled them to break themselves out of the prison of extreme poverty.

If you think about a situation where they’re surviving on basically pennies a day (in American dollar terms) – a loan of $5 all of a sudden makes their life exponentially greater – and gives them the chance to continue raising their quality of life.

We’ve decided that we need to give more.

We’ve also decided that we will lend $25 or 10% – whichever is greater – from every portrait session or wedding to Kiva business owners.